(1) Voters may submit ballots for safe-keeping three days prior to election day. Polling stations where ballots may be submitted for safe-keeping shall be set up in cities and municipalities with at least 7,500 eligible voters. In municipalities with more than 20,000 eligible voters, polling stations where ballots may be submitted for safe-keeping shall be set up to ensure that there is one such polling station per 20,000 voters. The working hours of polling stations shall be as follows: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. on Wednesday; 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Thursday; 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Friday. During these working hours, polling stations shall be staffed by at least four members of the polling station commission.

(2) Inside the polling station, a member of the polling station commission, having checked that the person is an eligible voter and that his/her passport does not already contain a stamp about participation in the current Saeima elections, shall write the full name and ID number of the voter in the list of voters and shall stamp the voter’s passport indicating that he/she has participated in the current Saeima elections. The voter shall sign the list of voters confirming the receipt of a complete set of ballot papers containing the lists of candidates nominated for the constituency and the ballot envelope. A ballot may be submitted for safe-keeping only once.

(3) Each voter shall be issued a complete set of ballot papers containing the lists of candidates nominated for the constituency and a ballot envelope bearing the stamp of the relevant polling station commission.

(4) The voter shall perform the actions set forth in Article 23 of this Law in privacy, shall hand over the sealed ballot envelope to the polling station commission, which, in the presence of the voter, shall then place it in a registration envelope marked with the full name of the voter and number assigned to him/her in the list of voters, and drop the registration envelope into a sealed ballot box.

(5) The voter who has submitted his/her ballot for safe-keeping may vote on election day only at the polling station where he/she submitted the ballot for safe-keeping. The polling station commission shall then annul the entry on the submission of a ballot for safe-keeping in the list of voters, and the voter shall cast a vote in accordance with the procedure set forth in Chapter III of this Law.

(6) Upon opening the ballot boxes after the voting has ended (Paragraph 3 of Article 31), the polling station commission shall sort the registration envelopes into two groups – valid and invalid envelopes. A registration envelope shall be deemed invalid if the voter has cast a vote on election day or if it does not bear the full name of the voter and number assigned to him/her in the list of voters. The invalid registration envelopes shall be counted and packaged unopened. The polling station commission shall open the valid registration envelopes and count the votes in accordance with the procedure set forth in Chapter IV (Paragraph 4 of Article 31) of this Law.

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The VOTA database was created within the framework of the joint programme between the Venice Commission and the European Commission "Democracy through free and fair elections". It is managed jointly by the Secretariat of the Venice Commission and by the Mexican Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF).